


Along the Riverbank

by dragonspell



Category: The Eagle (2011)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-18
Updated: 2011-05-18
Packaged: 2017-10-19 13:52:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/201579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonspell/pseuds/dragonspell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>North of the wall, Marcus considered it.  Now, he can do more than consider--Esca's his in ways more binding than those that bind a slave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Along the Riverbank

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://entropyrose.livejournal.com/profile)[**entropyrose**](http://entropyrose.livejournal.com/). Originally posted February 25, 2011 at <http://dragonspell.livejournal.com/161439.html>.

How many times, in the many weeks north of the wall, had he considered it? How many times had he turned his head in the dark during his watch and stared at Esca’s lightly sleeping form beside the smoldering coals of their fire? The thought had turned over and over in his mind—always loudest in the dark, always the most alluring when he was at his weakest.

Esca slept like a hunter: just barely under and ready to spring awake at the slightest sound. Marcus had known that if he had so much as moved towards Esca the way that he wanted, that Esca would have been up and wary.

…Would he have welcomed it? Would he have welcomed Marcus’s touch, the way that Marcus had craved?

It had been a long while since Marcus had last allowed him the pleasure of such physical contact. He missed it. But he’d contented himself with only the most chaste of touches because Esca was his slave. If Marcus had so desired, Esca… Esca wouldn’t have had a choice. Such was the lot of a slave.

And it wasn’t the slave in Esca that Marcus wanted to bed. No, what he wanted was that fiery strength that he saw in Esca’s eyes when Esca was on the hunt—that look of life and freedom. Marcus knew that that look would not be waiting for him if he pushed. Esca would not give it to him.

So he had always just watched. With the cover of the darkness in which to hide his shame, he’d stared unabashedly and considered. The things he’d done in the filthy ditch of his own mind—until his sense of shame overwhelmed him and forced him to look away lest Esca wake. One look at Marcus’s face would surely have given him away.

But now… Now it was Esca’s face which carried that look and Marcus was sure of his welcome. Far removed from any thoughts of walls or Rome or duty, alone together in the wild woods, there was fire and want in Esca’s eyes as he gazed upon Marcus’s body. It was no longer a private weakness of Marcus’s but instead a shared sense of belonging, another part of the bond that cemented them together.

Marcus smiled and ducked his head underneath the cold downpour of the small waterfall that they’d stopped by during their ride, letting the water slick down over his hair and the solid lines of his body. Officially, Esca and he were out hunting. Unofficially…not a person in Marcus’s household thought that they were going to bring much of anything back. The horses were already grazing, well aware of the score.

The hunt was all just for sport anyway—and there were other kinds of sport than just handling the hard, unyielding weight of a hunting spear. Marcus knew what he’d rather have his hands on.

There was something about the woods and the hunt that brought out the best in Esca—the passion and the wildness. For a chance to glimpse that, Marcus would organize a thousand such fruitless hunts. Esca’s nostrils were flaring, like a wolf testing the air, like a stallion scenting a mare. Marcus scrubbed at his hair and jerked his head up, encouraging Esca to come closer. Tempting him.

Esca didn’t disappoint. He slunk closer, stripping off his shirt and dropping his pants directly onto the bank of the river before wading in. Marcus waited until he came closer before reaching out to get a vise-like grip on Esca’s arm and haul him underneath the water. Esca shivered briefly—his only concession to the temperature of the water—and then steeled himself, holding as still as a sighted deer. Marcus trailed a soft hand alongside Esca’s face, feeling the harsh rasp of Esca’s stubble, and his breath grew short. He loved nothing more than the reminder of Esca’s sex. He was distinctly male from the day’s worth of beard growth on his face to the wiry muscles of his body to the soft but slowly hardening length between his legs and that excited Marcus. It made him want to hold Esca tightly against the unyielding wall and force him into a grudging surrender…or be forced to surrender himself.

Marcus bent his head and pressed his lips to Esca’s, softly coaxing them to open. Esca’s hands fluttered up to grip Marcus’s forearms, his fingers like hard iron bands as they dug into tender flesh. That strength excited Marcus even more. Unable and unwilling to fight the passion soaring inside of him, Marcus turned them, pressing Esca against the solid rock face behind the waterfall, the river splashing and swirling around their legs and ending the bit of soft, tentative exploration. In its place came a hard dominance. Esca let him hold him there. For a little while.

Without warning, Marcus’s feet were swept out from underneath him and he came crashing down into the pooled basin of the river, slipping in the packed mud of the bottom and submerging. He panicked, thrashing, but strong arms dragged him out before he had more than a chance to gulp at the swirling water, moving him to the riverbank. He laid there, stunned, as hard thighs closed around his hips, holding him firm and sharp teeth nipped at his jaw. The wolf showing his dominance.

Recovering, Marcus buried his hand in Esca’s water-slick hair and demanded another kiss. Esca obliged him, momentarily losing himself in the quick duel of tongues and Marcus took advantage of the distraction, his hands lashing out to grip Esca’s solid body and roll him onto his back in the mud. Esca scrambled for traction as Marcus pinned him, his legs churning against the ground and his hips rising to drag against Marcus’s in a delightful way. Marcus mock growled and smiled as he sucked at the tender skin of Esca’s neck.

“You are a bear,” Esca said with a laugh when he realized that, unless he wanted to injure Marcus, he was well and truly stuck, laid out on the riverbank for Marcus’s pleasure. The fight left his limbs and he grinned up at the sky.

As he no longer had to hold Esca down to maintain his position on top, Marcus’s hands started to wander, taking the liberties that he knew that he was allowed. They slipped down over Esca’s chest, grazing the smooth lines of his belly before moving all the way down to fondle the hard length between Esca’s legs. Esca’s breath rushed out of him as he arched into the touch, desiring more. He gripped Marcus’s shoulder, hanging on for dear life as one leg curled upward.

Panting with excitement, unable to take a proper breath, Marcus gripped his own cock and lined it up with Esca’s rubbing their two lengths together, feeling the silky softness of Esca’s skin at odds with the rigidness of his manhood and roughness of Marcus’s own hand. Esca squirmed underneath him, his hips rolling as he gave himself over completely, surrendering to Marcus for just a moment. Marcus felt as if he were flying, soaring through the sky, drunk on his own sense of power and a giddiness instilled by his approaching orgasm.

Esca was biting his lip, muffling his pleasure-filled sounds, just like always and Marcus wanted more. They were lost in the woods without another soul for miles. He awkwardly maneuvered his hand to press against Esca’s jaw, forcing him to unclench his teeth. “Let me…” he rasped. “Let me hear…” He would have Esca screaming and pleasure mad before they were done.

Quiet whimpers slipped from between Esca’s parted lips, sounding almost pained as Marcus steadily stroked the both of them, pulling them along to the cliff edge of completion. Esca writhed underneath of Marcus, keening low and soft as he slipped over into orgasm, pulsing in Marcus’s solid grip. His fingers dug in to the rounded muscle of Marcus’s shoulder as his head tilted back against the ground.

Feeling Esca shuddering out his pleasure was all it took to nudge Marcus over as well, his hand still firm and sure where it joined the two of them together, and he voiced his own gratification with a moan. As he navigated his way back to awareness, Esca gripped his wrist hard, stilling his hard and steady motion and, consequently, Esca’s own small shivers. They panted together, lying against the muddy bank, their feet still in the cool water of the river as the proof of their love-making cooled on Esca’s belly. Marcus felt no inclination to move, enjoying the feel of Esca’s hard body trembling beneath him. It wasn’t until Esca jabbed his hands into Marcus’s chest that Marcus deigned to roll to his side, allowing the smaller man a bit of breathing room. Esca slapped weakly at him with the back of his hand, still panting up at the leaf-covered sky above them. “You are a cow…” he gasped.

Marcus snorted. Just a little while ago, he’d been a bear. He’d been demoted somewhere along the way. “Surely more a bull,” he insisted teasingly.

“Aye,” Esca agreed, wiping at the grin that he couldn’t quite hide. “A bull. Charging in blindly to crush with your opponents with your weight.” Marcus shoved at him for the joking insult and Esca rolled upward. Marcus followed him up, raising a questioning eyebrow but Esca ignored him, wading back into the swirling water to begin wiping at the mess that Marcus had made of him.

Marcus grinned, lying back to take in the sight of Esca using their own private, nature-made bathhouse. It was better than any performance he’d occasioned to watch—more entertaining than the theater and more stirring than a chariot race. As Esca bent at the waist to scrub at his mud-caked legs, Marcus felt his cock twitch with a renewed interest and, not wanting the show to end, Marcus didn’t tell Esca that he needn’t have bothered—that it would be a long time in coming before Esca would be allowed to be clean again. Not with all the dirty thoughts that Marcus had stored up for today and for this place.

He knew that Esca would figure it out soon enough. He always did.


End file.
